xpm - uniX Package Manager

A universal package manager for any unix-like distro including macOS. Rewritten in Rust for maximum performance and portability.

What is xpm?

XPM is a package manager for unix systems like Linux, BSD, MacOS, etc. It can be a wrapper for native package managers or a package manager itself by using its way of installing packages. For the list of packages available, see xpm-popular.

Our key values

Easy to install, update, upgrade, remove, search (and filter)
No questions asked, can run in a non-interactive way
Easy to create new installers or a full repository
Be agnostic, following unix standards and relying on very known tools
Include many popular distros, including macOS and Android (termux)
Prefer native pm way and falls back to xpm way

Features

Universal: Works on Linux (Arch, Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, openSUSE), macOS, and Android/Termux
Fast: Built with Rust for maximum performance (~3MB static binary)
Unified: Search and install packages from XPM repositories AND native package managers
AUR Support: Full AUR helper support (paru, yay) on Arch Linux
Offline-first: Local database with cached package metadata
Script-based packages: Simple bash scripts for package installation

Supported Operating Systems & Package Managers

🎯 Integrated Support (Native PM with formatted search)

Debian/Ubuntu & derivatives → APT
Arch Linux → Pacman (with AUR support via Paru and Yay)

These systems get full native package manager integration with intelligent search, metadata extraction, and clean formatted output.

📜 Script-Based Support (via installers)

For other systems, XPM provides script-based installation through the xpm-popular repository:

Linux Distributions:

Fedora → DNF
openSUSE → Zypper
Clear Linux → swupd
Android (Termux) → pkg
Alpine Linux → via custom scripts

macOS → Homebrew (brew) - via scripts

Installation

Faster with curl

curl -fsSL install.cat/verseles/xpm

From Source

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/verseles/xpm.git
cd xpm

# Build
cargo build --release

# Install to /usr/local/bin
sudo cp target/release/xpm /usr/local/bin/

From Cargo

cargo install --git https://github.com/verseles/xpm.git

Quick Start

# Check your system
xpm check

# Add the default repository (pulls from xpm-popular)
xpm refresh

# Search for packages (searches XPM + native PM)
xpm search neovim

# Install a package
xpm install neovim

# Remove a package
xpm remove neovim

Commands

Command	Alias	Description
`search`	`s`	Search for packages (XPM + native PM)
`install`	`i`	Install a package
`remove`	`rm`	Remove a package
`refresh`	-	Refresh package database
`upgrade`	-	Upgrade installed packages (coming soon)
`get`	-	Download a file
`file`	-	File operations (copy, move, delete, bin)
`repo`	-	Repository management
`checksum`	`hash`	Compute file checksums
`shortcut`	-	Create desktop shortcuts
`log`	-	Show installed packages
`check`	-	Check system configuration
`make`	-	Create a package (coming soon)

Search Examples

# Basic search
xpm search vim

# Multiple terms
xpm search text editor

# Limit results
xpm search rust --limit 10

# JSON output (for scripts)
xpm search go --json

Architecture

XPM is built as a Rust workspace with two crates:

xpm-core: Core library with database, OS abstraction, and package management
xpm-cli: Command-line interface

Key Components

Native DB: Fast, embedded database using native_db (redb backend)
Async I/O: Full async support with Tokio
Git integration: Uses git2 for repository management
Native PM integration: Seamless integration with apt, pacman, paru, yay

Creating Packages

Packages are bash scripts with metadata headers:

#!/bin/bash
readonly xNAME="my-package"
readonly xVERSION="1.0.0"
readonly xTITLE="My Package"
readonly xDESC="Description of my package"
readonly xURL="https://example.com"

xARCHS=(x86_64 aarch64)
xDEFAULT=(any)

install_any() {
    # Installation logic
    echo "Installing..."
}

remove_any() {
    # Removal logic
    echo "Removing..."
}

validate() {
    # Validation - return 0 if installed correctly
    which my-package >/dev/null
}

Save as my-package/my-package.bash in your repository.

Repository Structure

my-xpm-repo/
├── package1/
│   └── package1.bash
├── package2/
│   └── package2.bash
└── ...

Building from Source

# Development build
cargo build

# Release build (optimized)
cargo build --release

# Run tests
cargo test

# Run with verbose output
cargo run -- --verbose check

# Pre-commit checks (format + lint + test)
make precommit

Container Testing

Test xpm on different distributions using Podman:

# Build and test on Ubuntu
make test-ubuntu

# Build and test on Arch Linux
make test-arch

# Build and test all distros
make docker-test

# Clean container images
make docker-clean

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please:

Fork the repository
Create a feature branch
Make your changes
Run cargo test and cargo clippy
Submit a pull request

License

BSD-4-Clause

Credits

Built with ❤️ by Verseles

verseles/xpm